April 18, 2018 By Chris Varney
It was a little chilly last night in Brooklyn but that did not stop some area athletes from doing some fantastic things in the Boys Bear Traxx Classic Relays.
East Marshall has had a good start to the track and field season, led by Senior Justin Ridout. Throwing the shot put, Ridout in his final attempt threw a 56–07, which is currently the 5th best mark in the state. Ridout says that he focuses hard on the shot put, he also finished third in the discus but he competes in that event more for fun. The shot put is business however. He will make the Drake Relays field easy with the top 24 competitors advancing to the meet next week in every field event. The top 4 ahead of Ridout are Nick Phelps (Kingsley Pierson-Woodbury Central, 66–00.25), Dominic Etherington (Algona, 60-01), Zach Stacy (Dowling Catholic, 58-02) and Dawson Ellingson (Hudson, 57-07.25). Phelps is Class 2A so that will be tough competition at the state tournament for Ridout.
Lynnville Sully dominated the Class B division last night, thanks to their field events. The Hawks totaled 44 points in the 4 field events while second place HLV had just 17 points. That’s a difference of 27 points. Big difference and big advantage that will help L-S in the conference meet on May 1. Jesse Van Wyk won the discus, throwing 111 feet, just ahead of his teammate Grant Werhle at 108-01. Werhle was also 4th in the shot put. Carson Dunsbergen won the high jump at 5-10 and Rylan James got a PR in the shot put, throwing 48-02.25. Then throw in a third place finish from Gage Vander Leest in the long jump.
Also for the Hawks, Corey McCoy showed something in the 200 meter dash. With the wind blowing into his face on the front straightaway, McCoy exploded out of the gate and left Devon Maxfield of BGM and Joe Zuber of Iowa Valley in his dust. McCoy scored a 23.28 mark while Maxfield finished at 23.87 for second place. A couple of weeks I talked about the tough 1A District for the 100 and 200 meters. You can throw McCoy in the mix at the 200 with Jordon Bender of Montezuma, Maxfield and Keegan James of BGM, Troy Dolphin of BCLUW and Carter Fricke of Collins Maxwell. That is going to be some race on May 10 in the state qualifying meet in Brooklyn. (Bender ran at 22.50 last night in Montezuma, which is now the fastest time in Class 1A and 13th fastest in the state. The Drake Relays does not take 200 meter entries.)
Lastly, BGM’s James and Maxfield produced the best race of the night in the Class B 100 meter dash. Maxfield started strong and led early but only by a smidge. James would close towards the finish and would lean ever so slightly at the end to earn a tie. To the naked eye, it looked like Maxfield won but the camera would have the final word and it showed a tie at 11.80 seconds. The time is not great — they were running into the wind — but the time did not matter. Maxfield and James are two tough competitors on the same team and they shared the title on their home track.
Stay dry today with the winter weather, Thursday is shaping up for another day of spring sports. It will be the last chance for individuals and relays to qualify for the Drake Relays.